


Darkness and Hope

by missporgy



Category: Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dark Rey, Exegol, F/M, HEA, Post-Canon, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Pregnancy, reylo child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:27:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22333396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missporgy/pseuds/missporgy
Summary: It's a year after Exegol, and something wonderful has happened.Ben and Rey are ecstatic.They also become afraid.And fear, they say, is a path to the dark side.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 11
Kudos: 66





	1. Hope

“Ben..! something wonderful has happened.”

Ben looked down from the top of the Falcon. Just a bit more, he would have been able to fully repair the damaged radar. He took the rag hanging from his broad shoulders and wiped his hands. He ran his fingers through his now shorter hair and adjusted his black tank top. The Falcon can wait. Rey was gone for a month and finally she’s back. He missed her so much.

“Hold on, I’ll be down in a minute”

Rey smiled. It’s been a year since the battle of Exegol. The Resistance has transformed into the New Republic - travelling through the war torn planets bringing peace throughout the galaxy.

Rose and Kaydel worked with the local communities to establish livelihoods and build trade routes. Finn and Jannah were in charge of returning the children stolen by the first order, and reprogramming the remaining stormtroopers. Chewbacca championed the abolition of slavery and establishing worker’s rights. Poe maintained the New Republic fleet, still necessary to defend against rogue groups still loyal to the First Order. Lando was installed as the First Leader of the New Republic. His fair hand and charismatic leadership was known and respected across the Republic and all its allies.

Ben and Rey chose a quiet life, supporting their friends. Occasionally called on missions that require their unique Force powers - whether it be battling elements from the dark side that still lurk in the shadows, still devoted to the Sith Eternal - or just lifting rocks to help a village rebuild.

Together, with their friends, they have brought peace and balance not seen in the galaxy for generations. It was an exciting and eventful time, but Rey’s favorite moments were those where she and Ben are alone in their quarters at Ajan Kloss - reading the texts, talking about Luke, Leia and Han, meditating, eating snacks they snuck in under Maz’s watchful eye. Those moments were heaven to Rey. She was no longer alone. Ben understood her - every thought, every emotion - and every inch of her body.

Rey blushed. She felt her emotions and her desire for Ben long before Exegol - that handsome face beneath that mask, that surprisingly large and majestic body beneath his elaborate robes. The intensity he had. His low, raspy and gentle voice - gentle even at the height of their rivalry. Every battle they had was filled with passion - it was truly a wonder how neither of them succumbed to each other earlier. It was a different time. He was the Supreme Leader. She - couldn’t. But she never stopped wanting him. She thought of him almost everyday.

She felt his hands working their way around her midsection until he was fully hugging her from behind. “Alright, what's up sweetheart... " his deep voice close to her ear. "You know, I was a hair away from fixing the radar and..”

Ben stopped talking as his hand rested square on her abdomen. “Rey...”

He turned her around, his face bright with his dimpled smile. “Rey” he said again, his eyes wet with tears.

“Feel her, Ben. Do you feel her?”

“Her!” Ben was still smiling, but the tears were starting to fall. He couldn’t explain it. He was deliriously happy - but also, scared.

“She’s so .. small, Rey. Still so small” his eyebrows shot up, and his heart flooded with concern - and love.

“Of course she is, it has been barely a month. I wanted to tell you, but I wanted to be sure and -“

“Are you okay, Rey? Do you..” Ben swallowed “do you feel okay? Is there anything we should do - should we..”

“Relax, Ben.” Rey laughed. He’s so adorable when he’s worried. “Maz knows. She’s helping me prepare. We have good medical droids. Lando should be fine with me staying behind for some of the missions. Ben..” Rey ran her hands through his hair and held his face to calm him down.

“Ben. The Force is with us”

Ben was still caressing her abdomen and whispered “Always.”

They looked at each other. They knew.

“ _Leia_ ” they said at the same time.


	2. Fear

''SHIT!''

Ben’s huge hands made a mess out of the bottles and milk on the nightstand. The containers made a loud clang on the floor and a whole container of milk splayed out on the floor, the mess slowly growing and about to reach the Bantha carpet. 

“Shit.” He closed his eyes and centered himself. It was hard, as baby Leia’s angry cries continued to puncture the silence at 3am. 

He looked at the milk and it looked like his calligraphy ink, all those years ago at the Jedi Academy, when he was woken up in the middle of the night ...

“Waaaaaaaahrgghhhh” baby Leia was still hungry.

“Hold on, hold on” Ben snapped out of it and managed to get a bottle made. He picked Leia up gently and hushed her with the bottle. Leia looked up at him and smiled. Her eyes were brown and soft, like her mother’s. Like his mother. 

“You.” Ben was cradling her with one arm and poking at her little round tummy. “You have a temper young lady” 

Leia just gurgled at him and giggled. Even at such a young age, it was clear she adored her daddy. He held her small face. ''You're safe here with me. I'm here. Daddy's here.''

Ben looked around at the mess. He needs to clean that up later. When she falls asleep. IF she falls asleep.

No one else was here. Again.

”It’s just you and me, kid” 

—-

Rey had a delicate pregnancy and stayed behind for most of it while Ben ran the missions and continued training a new generation of Jedi. Rey was relegated to gentler tasks like meditation and Jedi history. Ben vibrated with worry the entire time, for Rey, for the baby, for himself.

He has not known fear like this before. What if he runs into some bad luck in a mission and Rey and baby Leia would need to continue on alone. Him. Ben Solo. Kylo Ren. The man who singlehandedly decimated the Vader cultists at Mustafar. He had a reason to live now, and he was discovering what a delicate existence that is. To have attachments. 

When Leia was born, the whole New Republic rejoiced. A lot of fanfare. Ben didn’t like it. She shouldn’t have to have to live up to anything. She was her own being and such a beautiful one at that. Her hair was of the Skywalkers, immediately lush and thick. Her face beamed bright and open, like her mother’s. She also had her mother’s smile. Inside her, a pure burst of light and energy. It was powerful.

_With powerful light comes powerful darkness._

Ben shook off these thoughts, sometimes physically shaking his head violently as he once did, trying to get rid of the voices. No. They will not get to her. He will die before they get to her. He will not leave her.

“Ben..” Rey would gently caress his face when she saw him spacing out in worry. “They are gone. There is no one to come after her now. No Palpatine. No Snoke. They are gone, Ben.”

Ben would continue to shake his head. “You don’t know the power of the dark side, Rey. You can’t begin to understand..” Ben’s face would darken remembering as far back as when he was not much bigger then Leia. When they came for him. All those voices.

“I won’t leave her Rey. I’ll stay here.” Ben was determined he wouldn’t let them come near his baby.

“Ben- the New Republic needs us. I need you to fight with me. Leia will be safe here, we can leave her with Maz..”

 **“NO!** ” Ben's voice echoed across their chambers. Rey took a step back.

Ben looked at her with pleading eyes and his voice toned down to a whisper. “ _Please_.”

—-

“I don’t know what to do, Rose” Rey’s voice broke as she sunk down into Rose’s extremely comfortable bean bag. “I love him so much but there’s so much I can’t even begin to understand. He's still holding on. He won't let go.”

Rose paused from trying to tickle Leia in her baby carrier and looked at her friend.

Rey continued. “I mean he has gone through things -he WAS things - that are so far from everything I’ve known. Maybe he's just tired of fighting. Rose - he was Supreme Leader of the First Order. He was the Leader of the Knights of Ren before he met me you know” 

Rose knew. Everyone knew. Everyone was fairly friendly to Ben, given that he was with Rey. Ben would try to connect with people, making an effort to be helpful and Rose has learned to adore the big hunk of reformed darkside. Some of the others who were born and bred in the Resistance still kept their distance, however.

“Rey - have you tried - talking to him?” Rose picked up Leia. “I mean-Jannah and I will watch the baby, you guys go off and have a nice picnic somewhere..”

Rey sighed. It’s difficult to explain. Her and Ben didn’t have to talk. Their thoughts and feelings flow across to each other like streams flowing into the same river. It made it harder for her. She can feel his fear. And his pain. It was still there.

—-

Rey felt it too. The fear. Her daughter shone bright with the Light, and she too knows that anything that bright is prone to attract..the darkness. She knows that all too well - she has pushed back her own darkness by compartmentalizing her brain and hiding it deep.

Unlike Ben however, her immediate response was not to keep Leia in a protective box and never leave her side. She will need to learn how to cope. How to fight. How to compartmentalize. She had to do all of these. Alone, in Jakku. Nobody protected her. She had no nannies. No jedi uncles within reach. She had no heroic Resistance parents and a virtual army of carers. Alone.

Between her and Ben, she thinks she ended up better equipped to fight the darkness - she never did turn. With all of Ben's safety nets he still fell. Overprotecting Leia was the last thing she wanted to do. It doesn't work. 

What she _will_ do is go out there and snuff out every last vestige of the dark side in all corners of the galaxy. 

They will not even get a chance to go near her child. If Ben won't go with her, she'll do it alone.

_**She will destroy them all.** _


	3. Darkness

Rey scratched Ben’s back straight across as she moaned and writhed under his bucking body. He hasn’t had a chance to react when she reached up, turned him around and pushed him down - pinning him to the bed, as she rode him vigorously, digging her nails deep into his chest. Ben reached out to calm down his wife and she devoured his outstretched fingers sucking them hungrily in her mouth as her rythm quickened. Then she bit down. Hard.

“Rey!” Ben pulled out his hand and held her hips with his fingers still bleeding. “Stop.”

Rey wouldn’t stop. She continued to ride Ben, her hips moving faster and faster as she roughly grabbed on to his arms. She yelled as she climaxed and collapsed on her husband, licking his neck and ears in the afterglow of her powerful orgasm.

“Rey, sweetheart. Is everything okay” They’ve always had intense passion, the force knows how powerful Ben’s urges have been. But lately Rey has been - different.

“Mhmmm” Rey was still on top of Ben, and in attempt to let him know she was fine she reached out for his hand. She felt the slick of his blood on his hand and her vision darkened.

Starkiller Base. Kef Bir. Her defense mechanism heightened. A powerful force - a dark force - propelling her to kill. Kill him. _Kill him._

It would be so easy. She can call her saber and stab him right now. She can wrap her hands around his exposed neck. She can -

“DADDY!!!!”

A wail from the other room broke her thoughts. Leia. Her child. That was her baby. With her husband. This husband. Ben Solo. Here, with her right now. His hand bleeding. Bleeding because she - she bit him? What happened? Rey was trying to ground herself. What’s happening. What’s happening to her.

She looked up at Ben, tears starting to well up in her eyes. “Ben...”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get it.” Ben started to get up and wrapped a shirt around his bleeding hand.

“She really wakes up around this time you know. She finishes a whole bottle of milk too, and I have to read her a story. It’s part of our routine.” He finishes dressing up and looks at her. “I’ll be back.”

“Ben...” Rey watched Ben leave, her heart sinking. 

‘Our routine’ he said. As if emphasizing that Rey was hardly home to enjoy all these little routines of parenting. Rey felt ashamed but also angry - he still insisted on hovering around the child all day, even insisting she tagged along as he taught at the Academy, while she was the one out there hacking Sith loyalists in the dark shadows of the galaxy. Alone.

_Plagueis. Plagueis. Plagueis._

The dark hooded figures chanted, as Rey crept up on them. Her hatred burns bright for all of them - their loyalty continuing to feed the darkness, the same darkness that tortured her husband for years. The same darkness that threatened her daughter. They all had to die. They cannot be left to live. All of them. With her powerful Force powers, it was easy. And she felt she was getting more powerful with every dark side cult she decimated.

She told no one.

Ben and Lando thought she was collecting Sith and Jedi artifacts for the Academy. If Ben knew she was putting herself in any kind of danger - well he wouldn’t have it. She remembers him at Exegol, taking on the whole Sith Eternal to save her, with just a blaster and none of his elaborate Kylo Ren armor. Just Ben. She smiled. She got up.

—-  
Ben patted Leia’s small head and looked around. He smiled. She always falls asleep quickly when he reads her stories about the Trade Federation blockade. He closed his eyes and sensed the room for any darkness. There was nothing. She was smiling. She was fine.

He sat for a moment with his daughter, his large frame blocking out her light. He was waiting for Rey.

Rey. Her scratch stung and his fingers ached at her bite. Something was happening to her. He knew it all too well. He senses it in her, and remembered for a time he encouraged it - she was strong in the dark side, and he wanted her to rule with him. It felt like a million years ago.

He knows too that the darkness never really goes away. He spent long years giving everything to the dark side. Love broke him. His father’s, his mother’s and Rey’s. Love balanced the darkness in him.

Somehow, all the years his parents spent with him - planting the seeds of trust and compassion, stayed with him through all the years of darkness. It was always with him. And that’s what he’s doing now for Leia. He knows it’s a bit much. Maybe when she’s older he’ll start taking on more missions. But as long as he can, he will spend time with her - so that somewhere along the line, no matter what she will have to face, she knows in her heart that she can always come home.

“She sure loves her daddy. I can never get her to sleep quite as quickly as you do” Rey stood in the doorway, looking at them both.

She walked over to where Leia was sleeping soundly and patted her little thighs. “My sweet little girl. Imagine, Ben. A Skywalker. And a Palpatine. She would be so, so powerful. I’ll fight anyone for you, my baby. Your mommy is here to protect you, always”

Ben was just looking at her. She never acknowledged that she was a Palpatine. Until now.

“Come back to bed, sweetheart?” Rey smiled at Ben. “I’m not done with you.”

“Sure. Go ahead, I’ll just clean up here a bit.” Ben was still sitting down, just looking up at her.

“Don’t take too long” she winked as she walked away.

Ben’s heart sank and his lips started to tremble as he looked at his daughter. There was nothing here just awhile ago. When Rey walked in he sensed darkness.


	4. Confront

“ _Please_ dad. Let me go with you” Leia whispered. “I’ll help you” she pleaded, looking up at her father.

Ben smiled. She looked just like Rey did when she too offered to help him. Leia has grown into a young woman now, not much older than her mother was then. Leia Solo was devoted to the new Jedi order, trained literally from birth. Her jet black hair reminded everyone of her father in his youth, and her smile lit up the room like her mother did.

“No stardust, this is too dangerous. Look after your mother.” Ben thought of Rey. He is doing this for Rey. And Leia.

“Always remember Leia. The Force will be with you. All the Jedi will always be with you. As I will.” 

He himself has grown older - a few white hairs peeking out from his shoulder length mane and throughout his beard. He wore the black robes of a Jedi Master now. Ben held her face in his hand and wondered where the time had gone.

—

The New Republic was unhinged. Lando’s passing hit them hard, and Rey ascended to lead it at a time of much turmoil. She was the Jedi, trained by Luke and Leia. She ran many missions for the cause. Well liked by all. Her friends supported her leadership, although a few have started to question her choices.

She started to round up more territories and was unusually aggressive in demanding their support. More and more the fleet led by Poe was being called on for more than just peacekeeping missions. She also called in the former First Order General Hux - to Poe’s dismay - to build an entirely new fleet. Large ships - ships Poe did not know they had the capability to build.

Finn and Jannah were called to round up the reformed stormtroopers for even more aggressive negotiations. Chewie was asked to supply workers for the weapons factory - all he could do was make sure their conditions were still acceptable.

Ben saw this happening. Slowly at first, but her path was clear. She was becoming someone else - no longer the sweet girl from Jakku, not the Jedi he had married.   
He tried to pull her back, to help her with the darkness he knows was creeping in, but she rebuffed him every time. 

Ben has had enough.

“Sweetheart-we don’t need all this. Give Poe the reins. He’ll make a good leader. Let’s just build our new Jedi order. Have a quiet life with Leia. Please”

“Poe.” She huffed. He wouldn’t know what a full Republic fleet is if it bit him in the buns. “Ben. I can do this. I can build a new order in the galaxy. We can leave the New Republic and build a NEW GALACTIC EMPIRE”

“Please, Rey. _Please don’t go this way_.” Ben’s heart broke into a million pieces as he said it. He knows he has inflicted this pain on her before.

“Ben” her voice was softer now, and he held his face in her hand “This is the only way. This is how we can protect Leia. The Dark Side is rising. I can feel it. YOU can feel it. They’ll come for her. We need to have the biggest fleet, the most control, we need to protect ourselves....”

Rey who grew up alone, abandoned, scavenging for scraps - will not be left with nothing again. Rey was there, at Crait, when no one came to their aid. Rey was there at the Falcon, when only a handful of them survived, and had to rebuild the whole Resistance from nothing. They will not be caught off guard again. They will be strong and ready when the Dark Side rises. They will have the most allies. The biggest ships. The best weapons. The dark side will not win. They will not destroy everything they have built.

They will not go anywhere near her daughter.

\---

Ben knew she was right, about the Dark Side. He felt it in the Force. He felt it in Exegol. Darth Sidious was not the last of them. The Book of the Sith spoke of Plagueis. The one who was able to master Death itself. He knows Plagueis is still alive. And no amount of ships and weapons can stop the Sith Eternal from rising. He also knew that Plagueis taken a hold on Rey – with her mighty Palpatine blood. He was powerless to stop it. She was stronger in the Dark Side. Stronger than she knows.

“Rey’’ He tried one last time. He held out his hand ‘’Take my hand. Let me help you. Come back to the light. This is what Leia needs. She needs her mother, Rey. She needs...”

“She needs us to _**protect** _her Ben. What do you think I’ve been doing? Protecting her. What have you done? Nothing” Rey shook her head. “You’ve done **NOTHING**.” Rey spat at him, her voice seething with disdain, alien even to her.

Ben looked at her, and he saw only Kylo Ren. The same intensity. The same belief that what she was doing was right. The same eyes, clouded by the dark side.

He knows what he has to do.

“I love you, Rey. I don’t know why I waited until Exegol to say it. I have always loved you” he took her hand, and looked her straight in her eyes, much like he did long ago in that hut “...and I always will”

“Ben...I’m sorry“ her voice was breaking. “And I’m sorry but you can’t stop me. I .. I need to do this”

Ben looked at her sadly. He's been there. “..I know.”

——

Ben stood at the entrance to Exegol once more.

Much older now, but also more fully the Ben Solo that he should have been. The intelligence and spark of General Leia Organa, the strength and fury of Anakin Skywalker, the grace and unfailing love of Padme Naberrie and the heart and soul of Han Solo running through his veins. Jedi Master Ben Solo, father to Leia Solo, a dyad in the Force with the last Jedi Rey. They are the balance in the Force, only seen a few times in a millenia.

And he will finally end this.

He gingerly descended this time into the caves of Exegol. A tomb. And a portal.

He hasn’t told anyone. Not even Rey.

When Palpatine threw him in the pit, he fell into a vergence scatter and all time and space ceased to exist.

This was where he saw him. Plagueis. This is where he will face him one last time.

He held his saber. Anakin’s saber. He was on high alert. He can feel them, everywhere.


	5. Heal

_“Where is he, Leia?”_

Rey walked into Leia’s quarters. This morning she received a report that the Falcon is missing. She can’t believe that hunk of junk is still flying after all these years. It was still Ben’s favorite, because it was old school he said. Rey smiled. She married a grandpa.

She tried contacting Ben through the Force but he was closed off. He does that often with her now. She knows he doesn’t approve of what she’s trying to do but she knows in the end, he’ll see.

Leia was arranging her hair when Rey walked in. Jet black, like her father’s. Up in buns, like her mother’s.

Rey, now the leader of the New Republic, no longer kept her hair in girlish buns. She favored large headdresses, and elaborate robes, like Padme. Ben didn’t like it that much, but she never got a chance to enjoy things like this. She should be able to.

“Mother.” Leia didn’t turn around. She was caught off guard. She put away the saber she was about to conceal under her robes.

“You should have felt me coming, Leia. Isn’t that something you should know by now?” Rey sat down on her daughter’s bed. ''Your father should have taught you to be more alert'' Rey continued.

Leia turned around.

“Where is he, Leia. Tell me. Where is your father.”

\----

As she turned, her eyes fell on her beautiful mother, all decked out in New Republic finery. They have a different connection than she has with her dad. She knows her mother loved her fiercely, she can feel it. But she kept her distance. She never really knew her parents, her dad explained. Maybe she is relating to you the way she knows how, he said.

He also shared with Leia how her mother was a Palpatine. Ben knew that sort of information should not be kept hidden. “ _The darkness is still in her. It’s in me. It’s in you too, Leia. We can’t just escape it, we must confront it, this is part of the balance. Do you see_?” Ben explained.

He taught her, to recognize her darkness. Confront it. Even - harness it. In the late nights her father would teach her how to use - and contain the dark in her. If she doesn’t - he says - well, look at your mother.

Rey never acknowledged the darkness with Leia. She was caring and doting, but they did not speak of such things. She was too busy running the affairs of the Republic to maintain her Jedi exercises, and all of Leia’s instruction fell on Ben. Leia was glad.

“Mother. I’m sorry but he has asked me not to tell you”

Rey looked at her incredulously. Ben and Leia always had a closer relationship. Ben practically raised her. She remembers feeling ashamed, as a young mother - leaving them behind. She remembers feeling jealous at Ben’s ability to connect with their child. Her child.  
  


_**“Not to tell me??**_ ” Rey’s voice was sharp. Filled with hurt and concern – why is Ben hiding information from her?

Leia looked at Rey sheepishly, bracing herself for a confrontation.

“Mother..he said he’d rather I not lie so he just said not to tell you. And that you’ve already talked and if you really listened to him then you would know”

Rey replayed last night's conversation in her head. When he told her he loved her. When she spat out words she didn’t mean. She was angry. He was holding her back. Maybe he was jealous. Maybe he wanted to be the one to head the New Republic. Where is he? What if he was planning a mutiny - what if that’s what he is doing now. Rey's head started spinning.

She’s _sure_ that’s what he was doing. Otherwise he wouldn’t sneak out like this. She should have known. That power hungry Kylo Ren was still in there somewhere. He wants her power. He will undo what she has built.

Rey’s nails were digging into her hand. Her vision darkened.

Before she knew it her hand was stretched out, aimed at her daughter’s head - getting ready to search her thoughts.

 ** _“Tell me WHERE HE IS!!”_** Her voice growled, a deep unnatural sound she has never heard before.

Leia felt a darkness start to probe her mind.

“MOTHER!! NO!” Leia raised her own hand in defense.

A flash of bright blue light lit the room.

Rey was thrown back on the bed.

\-------

The room was silent except for small sobs coming from Leia.

“Mother....how could you.” she whispered softly. A look of betrayal and disappointment on her gentle face.

Rey was silent. She looked at her hand and looked at her daughter. Back at her hand, and back at her daughter again.

“Leia...” she started crying as she walked towards her daughter who is slowly backing away from her, shaking her head as tears were falling from her face.

“Leia, help me. Help me. Something’s happened to me..help me..your father’s gone..you’re my only hope”

“You drove him away!!!” Leia yelled at her mother, her voice breaking. “He loved you! All he wanted was a quiet life. You let the darkness in and you just fed it and fed it with your lust for power and now it’s a monster!! YOU’RE A MONSTER!!

Rey looked down, ashamed. “Yes, I am” she whispered. As Ben did. Ben. Her thoughts immediately went to Ben.

——-

Leia was taken aback. She felt her mother start to probe her mind and immediately went on the defense. Her father trained her to know when something like that is happening. He said someday it will come. A dark force will try to enter your mind. And it will try to consume you. You will know. Don’t let it in. 

She waited. It didn’t come. Until today. She knew this was the dark force her father trained her for. 

She didn’t know it would be her own mother.

She didn’t know that she would feel so betrayed that she would call her own mother a monster. 

Or that she would feel so awful when her mother agreed that she was.

——

Rey fell back to sit on the bed, defeated. Leia just called her a monster, and maybe she was. She just tried to _mind probe_ her own daughter. The daughter she spent almost a lifetime to protect. All her work, all the cult villages she razed to the ground, building the New Republic and making it strong– they were all for her. For them.

**_No, they were for YOU. A New Galactic Empire, for the Sith Eternal to rule once again. Finish what your grandfather started._ **

Rey tried to shake off the voices. They were becoming more and more frequent now. Ben. Ben would know what to do. Ben. Her soulmate. He was the only one who understood her, and she drove him away. Like she did. She rejected him, over and over again. Still he came for her. He came to save her. 

**_You should have killed him. Like you killed Darth Sidious. It’s the only way you could be what you were meant to be._ **

**_Empress Palpatine._ **

“STOP!!! ENOUGH!!” Rey placed her hands on her head.

“Please...stop” she curled up into a ball, crying on her daughter’s bed. “Ben..Ben, make it stop” She knew Ben wasn't there. But still she called to him, like she has all those years ago, late at night alone in her room. When she needed him, he came. To tell her she wasn't alone. 

She felt Leia come to her, slowly, gingerly - still a bit frightened at the darkness consuming her mother. She reached into her pocket and took out a gold chain. Han Solo’s dice. He places it on her mother’s hand. 

“Dad wanted me to give this to you.” 

Rey held it in her hand and collapsed further into despair. “Ben. Ben I’m so sorry”

Leia then closed her eyes and put her palms together, until a cool blue ball of light started to form between them.

“Dad isn’t here right now, but he taught me this - he taught me what to do when the darkness comes” Leia continued to handle the ball of light in her palms and placed it on the top of her mother’s head. 

“Feel the Force, mom. Let your fear go. Let it go. I have everything I need. I am my father’s daughter. And I am yours.” Leia massaged her mother’s head and enveloped her in the light with her eyes still closed. 

\-------

The voices stopped. Rey felt a million pounds lighter. She looked at her daughter. She looks so much like her father. When he held her, his eyes closed, when he brought her back to life at Exegol.

Exegol. He said something about Exegol , the last time they talked. 

“Leia....” Rey reached out for her daughter’s hand. “Leia, I’m so sorry” 

“Mom” Leia smiled and held her mother’s face.

This was her. Rey of Jakku, who took Leia on scavenging trips, and taught her a hundred different ways to serve bread. Her mother who sang to her at night, humming tunes that her uncle Poe would teach them. Mrs. Ben Solo, always at her husband’s arm looking at him adoringly. Rey, whose smile can light up a room. The same smile now on her daughter’s face. This was not Rey the leader of the New Republic. The commander of the fleet. The conqueror of planets. Just mom. Just Rey.

“Mom'' looked straight into her mother's eyes. The wisdom of all the Jedi speaking through her. ''The darkness will always be there. It’s in me too. It’s in dad. The Force is strong in our family. The light, and the dark. But we can’t hide from it mom. You have to face it. Fight it. Use it, for good”

Rey just nooded as her tears continued to flow. She was home. She was not alone. 

“Mom. You have to make this right. Restore the New Republic. Bring peace instead of war. Don’t let the darkness work through you.”

Rey continued to nod. Leia was right.

Leia. Like her former Master. The brave Resistance general. Ben’s mother. She must have felt darkness too. She never showed it in her leadership.

"Mom'' Leia stood up. “We have to go - the other Jedi and I. We have to help dad. We’re ready. We need to go help him. With or without his blessing. It’s what you would do.” Leia already gathered everyone, including the young padawans. They were getting ready to leave. 

“Leia - I’m coming with you. Ben needs me” Rey stood up too. She will go to him - as he had all those years ago.

Leia knows she can’t persuade her mom to stay.

“We’re leaving in an hour, mom.”

——-

Rey went to give Poe new orders, and to put him in charge. She will begin to make this right. The New Republic will rise again and bring peace.

Leia watched her mom leave.

She sat in a lotus position as she held her grandmother’s saber.

 _“_ _The Force will be with you. All the Jedi will always be with you. As I will._ _”_ she heard her dad’s last words to her.

“Be with me.” Leia prayed with her eyes closed.

“Be with me.”


	6. Legends

Ben stood in front of Palpatine’s throne, his dark robe shuffling in the sparse wind deep in the heart of Exegol. 

Palpatine.

He preyed on his family for generations. His grandfather. His grandmother. His uncle. Him. He was a baby. He was a BABY. 

Ben felt the anger rising in him as he gripped his saber tightly. Rey. He preyed on Rey. 

Hot tears flowed from his face as he remembered all the evil, dark and nasty things Palpatine and Snoke put in his head. All the abuse he had to endure. The Sith using him, filling him with darkness and driving him away from his mom and dad. From the Jedi order. From everything he has known. From HIMSELF.

He leaped from where he was standing and stabbed the throne bitterly with his saber.

He continued to hack into the throne as his anger continued to rise in him, occassionally using his hands to attack and dismantle the ugly dark throne. His saber flew from side to side, decimating Palpatine’s last vestige. 

_**Yes. Feel the anger come back. Feel it Ren.** _

“Fuck you.” Ben muttered at the familiar voices.

Ben was standing where the throne once stood, breathing heavily, exhausted but feeling the familiar power flow through him. Blood was spattered everywhere - dripping from his hands, on his face, on his robes. His eyes blazed with the darkness. 

It’s always been there. 

He learned from his mother, how to hide it and keep it away. He learned, from his uncle Luke, how to fight it. And he learned, from his grandfather, how to use it. He gripped his saber tight. 

_We’ve taught you all we know. But this is your fight._

Ben would call the Force Spirits to help him protect his daughter. He called to them before he left for Exegol. To give him strength. For what he is about to do. To help bring him back, if they have to. They answered. They came. All of them. 

He nodded in a silent gesture to all the Jedi that came before him. He knows what he has to do. There is no turning back now. This is the only way.

In his mind he undid the locks he has spent years and years to secure. Then he felt the familiar darkness take over.

Rey. Leia.

Those were his last thoughts as the power of the Dark Side came rushing back into him.

His years of training in the dark side. The screams of those terrorized by Kylo Ren. His father at the end of his saber. 

Plagueis has found his dark vessel.

His new apprentice.

Darth Ren.

——

Exegol was alive. 

Rey looked out in disbelief. The planet pulsated with dark energy. All those years of decimating small pockets of what she thought were remnants of the dark side. All those years convinced she has killed them all. She has not made a dent. 

Leia was beside her, looking ahead. Unlike her mother, she has never set foot in Exegol. All the training her father gave her, all the missions they ran together, they did not prepare her for this. She felt a stabbing pain in her heart. Her mind was in chaos, her autonomous defense mechanisms on high alert. She held her chest on one hand and her head in the other.

Rey looked over at her daughter. “Leia” her voice filled with concern. “Leia, you shouldn’t have come.”

Leia was having trouble breathing now.

“Turn back. Take the other ship with the padawans. Leave me here. I’ll find your father”

Dad.

Leia closed her eyes.

At the thought of her father, Leia’s breathing started to calm down. 

Dad. Patiently walking her through the mysteries of the Force. Teaching her where to hide the dark that’s already inside her, and how to deflect darkness that tries to come in. Light. Dark. A balance. Her mind strengthened and stabilized with the wisdom her father has imparted.

Dad. Clumsily trying to fix her hair. Listening to her talk about boys she liked. Scolding her for her bad calligraphy. Running over in the middle of the night when she wakes up and calls for him. Reading her stories of Trade Federation blockades. Making her her milk. Dad. Smiling at her. She felt a rush of white light fill her heart. 

Leia opened her eyes.

“Let’s go get him mom. He would do the same for us.”

Rey looked over and saw the Millenium Falcon parked on the edge of the cliff. She pictured Ben running over to her with nothing but his tattered clothes and a blaster. She saw him thrown down the pit by Palpatine, and somehow he came back for her and brought her back to life. 

Rey held Leia’s hand and smiled. “Yes, he would” 

——

Darth Plagueis looked over at his Sith Army…through the eyes of the mighty Darth Ren.

**_“At last. The time of the Sith Eternal has COME”_ **

The Arena thundered with cheers. In front the legendary Sith stand on guard. Maul. Dooku. Bane. Risen from the Vergence Scatter with Plagueis’ revitalized Dark Powers.

The massive fleet rising from the ground, planet killers all, ready to crush the New Republic and install a new Sith Empire. 

Plagueis looked and marvelled at the fleet, his army and his loyal Sith lords at his feet. Soon his powers will grow even stronger, as the wails and deaths of the oppressed strengthen him further in the dark side. Soon he will be able to conjure up his own old earthly form, and him and Darth Ren - his most powerful Sith - will rule over the entire galaxy. 

**_“It has BEGUN!”_ **

Darth Ren’s eyes darted to the side for a split second. 

They’re here. 

——

There were just a handful of them - no more than 30, some just padawans, descending into the depths of Exegol.

The sound of sabers igniting filled the dark caves.

The New Republic Jedi races into the arena.

Led by Rey of Jakku, Jedi of the Resistance.

And Leia Solo, the best trained Jedi of the New Republic, the blood of Skywalker, Solo and Palpatine running through her veins.

Plagueis sensed them. Puny Jedi. They are no match for his army.

**_Destroy them all!_ **

The Sith troopers and the Legendary Sith stand on guard. 

The Jedi are running into a trap.

—-

The Sith Troopers were everywhere.

They surrounded the small group of Jedi. Leia and Rey were at the edges of the Jedi circle, protecting the padawans in the middle.

Rey looked at the destroyed throne. 

There he stood. 

A majestic dark lord. 

Her husband.

Her dyad.

Eyes bright yellow. 

Looking at her.

 ** _Your husband is no longer here, PALPATINE_**.

Darth Ren’s voice boomed across the arena, Plagueis’ disdain for Palpatine seething through his possessed body. 

**_You were to be a powerful Sith, Rey Palpatine. An EMPRESS. Now look at you. You’re back to being NOTHING._ **

Rey knew that Plagueis was behind the words Ben was saying. But it didn’t hurt any less. It pained her, to see him like this. Back to this. Although this time, unlike when he was Kylo Ren, she could not sense Ben at all. She searched for him.

**_Ben Solo is DEAD!_ **

An otherworldly cackle filled the arena.

\----

Leia gripped her saber tight, her knuckles white with anger. Its white light crackled in the dark, illuminating her face as she closed her eyes, gathering strength. 

_Be with me._

_Be with me._

_Be with me._

The Sith Troopers were closing in on the small group of Jedi huddled in the middle, led by Maul, Dooku and Bane.

The Arena was howling, eager to see the blood of the last remaining Jedi spill on the floor.

**_Kill them all! Kill them all!_ **

Rey looked at her daughter, her grip on her own saber tightening. This is it. This is where their story ends. At least she is with them, in the end. 

‘’Leia… I am with you’’ she shouted through the commotion, loud enough for her daughter to hear.

Leia looked at her mother with a calm smile and nodded her head slightly.

‘’Ben’’ she whispered, just to herself, to her own heart. ‘’I am with you. You are not alone’’

_‘’Neither are you’’_

Rey looked up, her eyes wide. It..It can’t be.

Master Luke.

Behind him, an army of Jedi Spirits, their sabers ignited. ALL THE JEDI.

Anakin. Kenobi. Yoda. Windu. Ahsoka. Qui-Gon. Plo Koon. Aayla Secura. Kit Fisto. Kanan.

A whole army of hundreds of Jedi from all of millenia.

Behind all of them, her old Master – General Leia Organa.

The Arena roared in protest. The Jedi army – both living and spirits – attacked the Sith in earnest, easily decimating the troopers while the Masters were locked in an epic battle with the Sith Legends.

Rey cannot believe her eyes. She looked over at her daughter.

Leia Solo was smiling with tears in her eyes. Her father was right. They are always with her.

Father.

DAD.

She looked over at Darth Ren – to Plagueis – looking around in horrified confusion. He tilted his head up as the sound of exploding ships pierced through the sky. The New Republic Fleet has come. Led by newly installed leader Poe Dameron, with General Armitage Hux at his side. The Republic and it’s allies all came and the Sith fleet was under heavy attack.

Finn and Jannah’s army stormed the Exegol arena to take on the last of the Sith Troopers, along with an army of Wookies. They spared not even the arena audience, dark elements of the Sith.


	7. Sacrifice

Plagueis was filled with fury.

SKYWALKER. PALPATINE. From the beginning of time they have foiled all his plans. Palpatine killed him in his sleep, incompetently killed by his apprentice and his own granddaughter. A buffoon. The Skywalkers defeated every attempt of the Sith to gain a foothold in the galaxy. Each and every time. IT IS TIME FOR THEM TO END.

He saw her. The girl. Leia Solo. It ends here.

**_KILL HER_ **

Plagueis instructed his vessel and his dark apprentice.

Darth Ren walked over to where Leia was standing, still looking at him.

‘’Dad.’’ Leia’s eyes lit up. He’s coming to her. Her father. She knows what to do. She put her palms together and formed a blue ball of light. He was near. She’ll help him. She’ll…

Darth Ren was in front of her.

‘’Daddy.’’

He held out his hand and reached for her head..then Leia passed out.

Darth Ren carried her across his shoulder. In the commotion, no one saw him take her down into the pit.

\--

LEIA.

Rey looked around for her daughter.

LEIA.

She waded through the battle.

‘’LEIA!!!’’

She saw just the top of her head. Darth Ren was carrying her down the pit.

Rey ran.

\--

Rey climbed down and fell into a large rock, cropping out of the pit’s walls.

It led to a chamber, narrow at first, but wider and wider as she ventured deeper.

‘’LEIA!!!”

She heard nothing.

Then the sound of a saber igniting.

\--

She walked in to the inner chamber and her heart stopped.

Leia, on a slab, unconscious and bound.

Darth Ren, his saber ignited. Still possessed by Plagueis.

‘ _ **’PALPATINE. It’s just us now. No Jedi. No Fleet.’’**_ He called her saber to him. Rey was unarmed.

‘’My name is Rey SOLO’’ Rey’s senses were heightened. Her daughter was at his mercy.

**_‘’Solo, Skywalker, Palpatine – YOU ALL HAVE TO END.’’_ **

‘’Please... I will do whatever you want. Please let her go’’ Rey begged him.

**_‘’NO!! She is the last of you all. When she is gone there will be no one from either of your bloodlines to stop me again’’_ **

‘’That is not true'' Rey's voice was stronger now ''The galaxy will _never_ stand for tyranny. You can kill all the Skywalkers. But you will never kill what they stand for.’’

His cackle filled the air. **_‘’What do they stand for? Love?? Attachments? The Light? WEAKNESSES!!!’’_**

\---

Leia was stirring. She opened her eyes and saw her mother.

Rey looked at her with love. She remembered the first moment she laid eyes on her sweet baby girl. How her and Ben doted on her. Ben especially. Ben.

She looked at this Darth Ren. Eyes still burning bright with Plagueis spirit. Ben. She knows he went here to end this once and for all. He sacrificed himself and let Plagueis possess his body because if he didn’t, he will take HER. Only she was stronger in the Dark Side than he was. Plageuis would have only been able to use either of them.

If he didn’t, the Sith will continue to build strength underground until they can no longer be defeated. He sacrificed himself to raise them up, and to finally be destroyed. He knew the Jedi would come to help them. Ben.

She searched his eyes. She searched her own heart and looked for him. Ben. Don’t do this. Don’t go this way.

**‘’Ben Solo is DEAD’’**

Darth Ren raised his saber to plunge into the last Skywalker.

‘’NOOOO!!’’ Rey ran to protect her daughter.

Ren stretched out his hand and Rey flew up into the ceiling and dropped on a heap in the floor.

\----

Inside Ben Solo’s body, Ben and Plageuis were locked in battle.

He was powerless to stop his command, he was unable to speak, but Ben was still in there.

He saw Rey run towards him. He needed her far away, and unconscious. He was not taking any chances. He threw her up the ceiling.

He raised his saber. He saw his daughter look up at him in horror.

With the last of his strength, he focused on her.

_I will always be with you, stardust._

Ben plunged his saber into his own abdomen.

Plagueis will no longer have a vessel.

He felt Plagueis wail inside him as he descended back into the darkness.

The darkness is gone. The Sith have been defeated.

Leia is finally safe.

Rey is finally safe.

\------

 _‘’NOOOOOOOOOO!! DAD!’’_ Leia’s wail reverberated across the inner chamber.

Her sobs filled the air.

‘’Mom..Mom..’’ She called out to her mother, unconscious on the floor.

Rey stirred. Leia. LEIA.

She saw her daughter sobbing on the stone slab, still bound. Rey undid her arm and leg clasps and checked on her daughter. Then she saw him.

\----

Ben was on the floor, his saber still embedded in his abdomen. Rey pulled it out.

‘’Ben..’’ Rey scooped up her husband in her arms, her heart shattering into a million pieces. ‘’Ben…!’’ she hugged him and felt no Life Force.

She looked around. ‘’Leia.. help me…help me….’’ She felt her mind starting to leave her.

Leia was still sobbing, now holding her father’s face in her hand. ‘’Dad. Daddy…’’

Rey looked up at her. ‘’He’s gone, Leia. He’s gone..’’ She was just holding his hand. Like in the hut. But there were no visions. There was nothing. He was gone.

Leia was looking lovingly at her father, pushing his hair out of his face. ‘’No one’s ever really gone.’’

She gently lay his head on the floor and took her mother’s hand.

‘’Mom. Help me.’’

Rey looked up at her daughter. No. It was impossible. He is gone.

‘’We have to try, mom.’’

\-----

Leia held her father’s head in one hand and his abdomen on the other. Rey placed both her hands on Ben Solo’s heart. They closed their eyes. They centered themselves.

A blue light emerged from Leia’s hands and filled Ben’s body. Rey felt the same Force pass through her and flow back into her dyad in the force. They are one.

Leia and Rey both felt the first stirrings of Life return to Ben Solo, their eyes still closed.

They both felt Ben reach out.

They opened their eyes to see Ben Solo smiling at both of them, tears in his eyes.

Leia helped him up. He had no words. He hugged his wife and his daughter. They’re safe.

Rey took his face in her hands and smiled at him.

It’s her. She’s back.

‘’ _Rey_.’’ Ben smiled, his boyish dimples still visible under his beard.


	8. Epilogue

_**** _

_**The darkness will be back.** _

Plagueis will continue to try and return in his eternal search for power. He will continue to try and rebuild. Even if it takes him another millenia.

Darkness is still part of the Force. There is a balance. Light, Dark.

There is also between them, the same Force.

As the Solos make their way back, they know that this darkness will also always be a part of their legacy. A part of who they are. Each of them has it. They know now how to hide it. Confront it. Harness it. Use it – to protect who they love.

\-----

_Love._

Leia looked at her parents, flying the Millenium Falcon together. Flying home.

She wondered how it would be like, to truly fall in love. To find your soulmate. To go on so many adventures and still end up together. The 'Jedi Killer' and The Last Jedi. What a story it must have been.

‘’It must have been awesome huh’’ she said aloud.

Ben looked back at her and smiled as he reached out for Rey’s hand.

‘’It still is’’

**Author's Note:**

> ...Still writing out my head canons, a month out.  
> For Leia.
> 
> @missporgy
> 
> ps thank you twitter friends for helping me with a couple of plot roadblocks. This was really just supposed to be a one shot but I fell in love with Leia :) but this was probably the most difficult of my works so far just because I had to balance dark and light so much and take them back to a good place. Like life huh.


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